So I was wandering through the library the other day, and noticed that in their DVD section they had Saturday Night Live: 25 Years Of Music, and I figured "what the hell" and grabbed it.

I'm very glad I did.

It's a multi-disk set (5, I think, don't have it in front of me) covering the period 1974 to 1999. It doesn't have all the performances from those times, but is more of a "best of" kind of collection.

I've only watched the second last disk, 1990-1994. Being the music of my early 20s, it had the most immediate interest to me.

And wow, some of those performances are amazing.

I gotta admit, I went off SNL sometime in the early 90s. It just stopped being funny, in my opinion. Apparently I missed a bunch of cool musical performances, though.

The highlights (at least to me) on the one disk that I've watched include a stunning rendition of Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton, a "we're stoners" jam version of No Rain by Blind Melon, Bruce Springsteen playing his ass off (as usual) doing Living Proof, and Counting Crows grooving through Round Here with a surprising lack of vocal improvisation for that band, thankfully.

But the highlight on this particular disk, and I expect on the entire collection, is I Alone by Live.

Oh. My. Gods.

Fucking stunning performance. Really good mix, too.

Anyway, there's a ton of other interesting stuff to check out on the rest of the comp, and I look forward to doing so in the near future.

So, if (like me) you think that as a comedy show SNL jumped the shark years ago, you might want to check out this set. There's a bunch of music-related comedy scetches on it as well, which you can ignore or watch as you see fit. It's definitely worth seeing some of these performances, though.

Cheers,

Dave

Johnny

March 9th, 2007, 03:58 PM

Thanks Dave, I'll look for that. I want to see Zappa from, what was it, '79?

Azraphael

March 9th, 2007, 04:08 PM

Doesn't look like Zappa made the cut, Johnny. Here a list (from the NBC site) of which performances are on this compliation:

But the highlight on this particular disk, and I expect on the entire collection, is I Alone by Live.

Oh. My. Gods.

Fucking stunning performance. Really good mix, too.

:icon_eek:

I believe I saw that exact performance, and yes, my reaction was the same.

I was living in Florida at the time. I was broke from spending all my money on gear, so my TV was a small, yellow plastic, generic-brand hand-me-down from a constantly tripped out surfer next door named Skee. I was wathing from my living room couch, which was a rickety old dumpster find (propped up on old phone books because the legs had given out).

On comes Live, and I feel like I am right there among the audience.

Thanks for bringing that memory back, Az.

otek

Azraphael

March 9th, 2007, 04:54 PM

Fargin' bastiges. The Go-Gos but no FZ? Ugh.

Yeah, it sucks.

But I'm more of a glass-half-full kind of guy. I'm sure Zappa's not the only one left off that shouldn't have been, but rather than look at what's not there, I'm taking some pleasure in the stuff that is.

Still, Zappa woulda been very cool to see....

Cheers,

Dave

Unfcknblvbl

March 9th, 2007, 05:13 PM

Yeah, it sucks.

But I'm more of a glass-half-full kind of guy. I'm sure Zappa's not the only one left off that shouldn't have been...

The glass is half empty - The Clash didn't make the cut? EVH's performance with the SNL band? Fear's destructive appearance would have been interesting to include.
WTF do I know?

jerryskid

March 9th, 2007, 07:17 PM

Fargin' bastiges. The Go-Gos but no FZ? Ugh.

If I remember right, the Zappa episode was aired and rerun twice as per original contract. When they syndicated the SNL package, Zappa refused the rights to his music ....it was something about Zappa not being happy with his performance or something to that effect....